Senior Edit Assistant / MCR supervisor

Good news I have been promoted to Senior Edit assistant / MCR supervisor

Now my responsibilities DOUBLED! Which is good – I love it actually. Now my work ranges from managing the media ingestors to playing out the shows to be delivered to the broadcasters.

When the edit has been assembled and approved for a play out, the patch deck gets set up to go from the Avid that is playing out the finished edit passing through the Legaliser to make sure the show is with in the legal range for broadcast then goes out to be played on Sony VTR HD Deck and Digi-beta decks

check the picture above for the setup

Optomen

The workload is immense and it is long hours of ingesting, media management and play outs, Footage was shot on Sony cams and saved on SD Cards. On a good day I would be getting anything between 20 – 50 cards to be ingested within 48 hours so they can get wiped and go back out again on a shoot.

SD cards got ingested and managed via Avid Interplay then projects were setup on Avid media composer which was passed on to the editors to edit at online HD resolution.

I am loving how busy work is - learning a lot on the job and expectations are high also its worth mentioning that any mistake means loss of footage ... no pressure!

Optomen TV

I have been approached by Optomen for an Edit assistant Position. Which I have accepted.

The shows will be Shot in a HD Tapeless Environment, one of the shows I will be working on is "Market Kitchen Big Adventure"

More news soon!

Its Summer!

I will be taking sometime off now . Going on Holiday , I have worked on my CV and sent it around so I should be Fit to work as soon as I get back! - I hope so!

Have a Great Summer !!

Northumbria Graduate Show

I have been chosen to present my Dissertation Topic at Northumbria's Graduate show,

My Dissertation topic looked into creating special effects using a low budget, single computer to help small businesses that are looking to invest into CGI advertisement.
I received a First Class on My Topic it was a mixture of Technical paper work, production and presentation of the topic.

I was happy with how the day went, I got a lot of interest from small businesses that are looking to invest in CGI advertisement and they were asking for advice on the cheapest and most effective way to achieve it.

My presentation attracted the Mayor of Newcastle who was impressed with the production (video and pictures coming soon).

Overall it was a great day, I gave advice to help people which I always love to do
and some of the pictures taken of my presentation on the day are scattered around the Northumbria website.

Tony Blair at Northumbria's New Gym

Being a swimmer for Team Northumbria, I was asked to perform at the VIP opening for the New Northumbria Gym.

On the day there was a lot of security swarming around the Gym and it was soon known that the VIP guest speaker was to be the former prime minister Tony Blair.

I got in the pool with my swim team mates and we started swimming, we saw Tony Blair looking at us and as much as I wanted to stop and say hi I couldn't as it would have upset the "training session"

At the end of the day the former prime minster gave a speech about his future developments and then was on his way out.

Quickly I went up to him and introduced myself. I had a nice chat with the former prime minister which lead him to ask me "If you're Egyptian why have you got a glimpse of a Geordie accent?"

Finally we had a picture taken (swim team and I) by one of the press photographers,
and then the former prime minister said "Shokran" which is "Thank you" in arabic and then he left.

GEN UP - The Last week

The last week at Gen up took place at Northern Film and Media in Newcastle and Screen Yorkshire in Sheffield.

At Northern Film and Media We had seminars from indie companies with in the region talking about their experience running their own business , CV workshops.Its worth mentioning that NFM took care of us providing a really good lunch which was free and constant support.

At screen Yorkshire we had seminars from games editors and we had Colin Savage to work on team working skills both of them were useful.

After work the whole team and speakers went to a bar to say goodbye's which was a bit emotional.

the experience was invaluable and was really useful

Thank you TRC MEDIA FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE!!

BBC - Glasgow

On the train to Glasgow the scenery outside the windows really took me away something completely different to the sand I see when travelling back home. The sea really finished the scene nicely.

The BBC building was huge and we met a lot of people , I saw Duncan Bannatyne at a distance and I went up to him and introduced myself , later on we had a special tour around the production rooms and attended the recording of egg heads which was very interesting.

The rest of the week we had seminars and worked in different areas of the building which am not allowed to say anything about (SORRY!) but it was great fun.

Best of all during lunch breaks there was a massive screen to show the world cup matches and a fussball table which was great fun

Placement Week - Media 19 -Newcastle

Back to Newcastle for my placement week which was at Media 19 I was introduced to Belinda and given a brief of what I will be working on which was Campaign Trail UK a 3-year social media cross-platform project devised and produced by Media 19 a project dedicated for Young people (16-25) who are at a time of change and transition in their lives are designing their own public awareness campaigns and media projects about who they are, how they feel and the issues that affect their lives through Mapping their area.
Later during the day I took pictures of my journey from Media 19 to my house and took pictures that had a meaning to me and pictures that had historic value like the Grey’s Monument of Newcastle.
I worked on the Mapping project using the pictures I took from the day before to create a short movie using simple tools that youngsters can learn quickly (Movie Maker and Paint) after developing the short video which took most of the day.
Belinda and I had a meeting about how we can get the youngsters to interact with the mapping project, so I looked into trying to use Google Maps. The meeting also discussed the funding of the project and gave me an insight how the funding works which was useful.
Researched how to use Google maps effectively to serve the project’s cross platform concept looked into setting up different accounts and uploading pictures of location which youngsters might like to be involved with
Later during the day we travelled to Mima (Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art) in Middlesbrough for a meeting with the education officer to pitch partnership of Campaign Trail UK. It was very interesting to see how media specially a project of this scope can be transferred to an art gallery.
I pitched my full project which included the short video. Google maps. The game concept using the “user journey” technique I got good feedback from Belinda and Nick which lead to them asking me to help them further with this project and its development.
Overall I am very pleased with the Placement it’s not what I was expecting, it might not of had the high end post production work that I was hopping but I experienced something more valuable that i will probably never have came across and I completely admire how Media 19 use Creative media and cross platform to solve problems within the community that really inspired me
The passion and determination that Belinda posse for this project has really pushed me to work hard and really enjoy it
Best of all Belinda gave me a thank you card which was really nice of her.

The rest of Channel 4

The rest of the Channel 4 week we had an intense workshop with Rueben about personal brand. Not so much about the design of our brand logo but how we represent ourselves as professional designers. It was a very interesting day.

The final two days consisted of chats and workshops with several important peopled at Channel 4. These included people from marketing, advertising, 4Creative, multiplatform and many other areas. My favourite chat had to be with Ed from 4Creative. The work they are producing is where I want to be. It was quite exciting to see someone several years in to the career I dream of.

a lot of the talks ended up in the “off the record” area so I would be in big trouble should i share any of the info. I will say one thing, the schedule for channel 4 is worth an absolute fortune!



Some of the great people I met that week include Matt Locke, Stuart Cosgrove, Jen Topping, Reuben Milne, James Tatum, John Williams and Ed Webster.

Channel 4 - My Cadbury Winning !!

Second day at channel 4 , we had a seminar with researchers from the channel who look at figures of how the shows are doing and how to make them better.

They gave us a quiz to test our knowledge about the TV culture in England. Funnily enough I won and am not even English

What did I win you say? a Big Cadbury Dairy milk Chocolate which I shared with the rest of the team

Channel 4 - First day

first day at channel 4 was breathtaking with the group taking picture in front of the umbrellas that shaped the logo of channel 4 till the meeting room we got into, everyone was very excited for the start. We meet a range of important people that ranged from talking about channel 4’s values to legal issues within the production and how to avoid them.
During the afternoon each member of the group had the chance to pitch an idea to help the TV series skins improve its online presence using multiplatform; everyone gave really good ideas and everyone helped each other by giving positive comments to enforce the idea.

Colin Savage, an award winning programme creator and executive producer, treated us to an intense 2 day creativity workshop. Words cannot describe how fantastic these two days were. I learn more about the creativity process and pitching tips than I have done over the past 4 years at college and university. It was a fantastic experience, and so far has been the highlight of the course.

The day consisted of fun activities to try and open our minds and break down the barriers that may bloc creativity. As the day went on, all 9 of us began to really open up and the ideas and concepts we were pitching by the end of the day were fantastic. The next day, we were given a BBC brief, which we had to pitch by 4pm the same day! We had to pitch to the BBC using only pen and paper! Luckily, with a bit of creative thinking, we made it work quite well and believe it or not, we were chosen by both Colin and an esteemed panel of judges as the best group of the day! It just proves that fancy technology is one thing, but without the right content it is useless

Gen up Day 1

Day 1 - Induction Day

Travelling From Newcastle on the Train , I made my way to Vision and Media, which is based in Salford. After arriving I got a chance to talk to some of the other guys on the course, but we were quickly whisked into the boardroom to start the day. The induction day did exactly what it said on the tin, we were introduced to each other and the guys running the initiative and we also got to chat to some of the people based at Vision and Media.

To start the day, Carol Sinclair and Helena Ward introduced us to TRC Media and more information about what to expect over the next 5 weeks. Afterwards we had our very own XFactor style photoshop, first an individual shot then a group shot. The photoshoot was probably more fun that it should have been!!

After lunch, we had visits from, Lynn Kelly (Radio and Skills) and Enda Carey (Games, Digital and Creative Services) from Vision and Media. Both shared their experiences within the industry and how they got to where they are now. They were also very happy to answer any questions we had.

To round of the day, Fay Shannon from Northern Net came in to tell us about a new company that aims to provide super fast file sharing using specified Hubs across the North of England. (oh and we got a free USB stick :P)

My Gen up Placement Journey

What is Gen Up?
Gen Up North is TRC media’s training initiative for emerging digital talent. It is designed for graduates or those new to the industry who have a real talent for creating digital content for multiplatform.

Gen Up North is a unique immersion programme which will give you an opportunity to learn from leading experts in multiplatform, games, animation, television, advertising and digital design and marketing. The programme offers a range of expert seminars, hand-on workshops and industry placements.

Gen Up North is sponsored by Northwest Vision and Media, Northern Film & Media, Screen Yorkshire, Northern Net and Channel 4.

What’s on offer?
During this full-time, five week programme you will receive in-depth training plus hands-on experience through placements at network broadcasters and digital media companies. These placements are:
- A week at Channel 4, London
- Five days at a digital media company - either Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle
- A week at BBC in Scotland

All other seminars and workshops will be rotated around the North of England, specifically Salford, Newcastle and Leeds.

Topics for the seminars and workshops will include:
- Digital communications and advertising overview
- Games and animation overview
- Television and multiplatform overview
- Creative ideas
- Creative pitching
- Legal and finance
- Professional development

Iphone Games

I have been busy writing two Game design documents (during my spare time) for the I phone , They ideas behind the games haven't been done before and i think they will win people's hearts (and money :P ) , after I finish working on the game design doc.

I will start creating some designs and concept graphics then pass them on to my friend for the coding.

I cant tell you what the games are about yet as I am not sure but Watch this space!